Tom Hayden's Blog, page 30

Imran Khan Wins in Targeted Drone Zones

Imran Khan, Pakistan’s beloved cricket champion and leading opponent of US drone intervention, led the May 11 balloting in Peshawar and the Kyber Pakhtunkwha Province in Pakistan’s northwest, a region heavily targeted by US drone attacks. Khan, badly injured in a fall during the election’s height, is attempting to form a provincial government, following his PTI party’s winning of thirty seats in Pakistan’s parliament. 

Who’s Right, President Obama or Jeremy Scahill?

Since President Barack Obama graciously accepted Medea Benjamin’s intrusive questions during his speech at the National Defense University as fully legitimate, perhaps the president is edging toward answering the pointed questions by Jeremy Scahill about the drone killing of Anwar al-Awlaki on September 30, 2011. 

Tide Turning Against Counterterrorism Secrecy

President Barack Obama’s speech at the National Defense University on counterterrorism revealed a commander-in-chief increasingly worried about political criticism of his Guantanamo detentions, his penchant for secrecy and his drone warfare policies. Where Obama has shielded his policies on the basis of external terrorist threats, he now is responding to critics who threaten to upset domestic support for those policies abroad.

The Silence of the Drones

Without mentioning the widespread protests against US drone warfare, the mainstream media reports a sharp decline in drone attacks recently. Noted several weeks ago by the Peace and Justice Resource Center, the sudden silence of the drones once again received front-page mention by Scott Shane in the May 22 New York Times in the run-up to President Obama’s speech at the National Defense University. 

Rotten Apples

It is terrible enough that Apple produces its 21st-century technology in 19th-century sweatshops overseas. Now the New York Times reports that when it comes to profits, Apple only pretends to be outsourcing overseas, saving themselves $40 billion annually, which would otherwise go to education or deficit reduction. The “offshore” funds are funneled through subsidiaries abroad before landing in government securities in the US. Apple’s supply chain starts with low-wage investment havens and spirals through intermediary countries like Ireland, where two-thirds of its pre-tax income is sheltered, though only one percent of its customers live there.

Pentagon Wants 20 More Years of War on Terror

The Pentagon wants to extend the 2001 Congressional authorization of war against Al Qaeda, enacted following the 9/11 attacks, “at least 10 to 20 years.” If granted by Congress, that would mean open-ended, executive branch secret war in many parts of the globe. The Nusra Front in Syria could be attacked by the US, as could Islamist fighters in northern Yemen and beyond. Drones and Special Forces operations, under the 2001 blanket authorization to use military force, already target insurgents in Yemen, who had nothing to do with 9/11. 

Kent State Memorial Milestone

Kent State, last week, commemorated the 43rd anniversary of the National Guard killings of four students and the wounding of nine others on May 4, 1970, by the opening of the official May 4 Visitors Center. It was a significant milestone for activists – some already dead, the rest gone gray – determined to uncover the truth and honor the memory of those who died in an anti-war protest on that fateful day.

Is Reform Possible in Bangladesh?

With the death of 1,127 innocent garment workers, mostly young women, in a Bangladesh factory collapse, there is hope that conditions will finally improve in the sweatshops where garments are manufactured for Western consumers.

Elizabeth Warren, Maxine Waters and the Progressive Future

Senator Elizabeth Warren has even Robert Scheer justifiably swooning by standing up for students against Wall Street. Public expectations are soaring around Sen. Warren’s role on the Senate Banking Committee, feeding speculation of a future presidential run. Progressives should be delighted, for the moment. For a perspective on what happens to fighting liberals when they join the insider culture of Congress, no one should miss the New York Times article, “The Mellowing of Maxine Waters.”

Cause of Benghazi: Western War on Libya

The Benghazi attack, which claimed four American lives, was caused by the French/US/NATO war against Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya. That is the point no one is making.